Right Move, Wrong Way

August 3, 2002

Tampa Mayor Dick Greco did the right thing when he visited Cuba earlier this week on a fact-finding mission. Greco is trying to position his city for trade with Cuba once the embargo is lifted. This is what politicians in South Florida ought to be doing.

Greco, who is retiring from office next March, is taking heat for his brief visit to Havana.

Gov. Jeb Bush said the Tampa mayor's trip could have the "unintended consequence of propping up the Castro regime." Tampa lawyer Ralph FernM-andez, a Cuba hard-liner, was more blunt. He called Greco's trip an insult to all Cuban-Americans and said it could cost Tampa a shot at hosting the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Such reaction is shortsighted. For one thing, it ignores that Cuban-Americans are divided over the best way to promote democracy on the island. The Republican Party also struggles with this issue.

While President Bush wants to maintain sanctions against Cuba, Congress wants to ease them. On July 23, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to lift restrictions on travel and food and medicine sales to Cuba. Lawmakers also want to remove an annual $1,200 cap on family remittances sent to the island -- a move strongly favored by Cuban exiles eager to help relatives back home.

The Senate is expected to pass a similar measure on Cuba. Key Republican lawmakers in both chambers support this effort.

Florida wouldn't receive an immediate bonanza from travel and trade with Cuba, which is saddled with a bankrupt Soviet-style economy. But if all U.S. restrictions were suddenly removed tomorrow, Florida would be behind other states that have been exploring trade opportunities with the Communist-ruled island.

Greco is trying to make up for lost time. On Sunday, he quietly led a delegation of 15 business leaders from West Central Florida, including the head of the local chamber of commerce and the publisher of a Tampa Spanish-language weekly newspaper. The mayor, who returned on Wednesday, should have told the public what he was up to rather than cloaking his visit to Cuba in secrecy. Greco was, no doubt, trying to avoid the controversy his trip generated. Nonetheless, his business is the public's business.

Still, his intentions were sound. Tampa has a first-class port and the infrastructure to take advantage of trade with Cuba when the time comes. Miami can't make this move because the issue is too emotionally charged for the city, but what about Fort Lauderdale?

Broward County's flagship city also has the right infrastructure -- Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport -- for trade with Cuba, when the time is right. Broward officials should not be afraid to follow Greco's example.